Joy Oladokun’s Observations From a Crowded Room is among the best albums out Oct. 11.

Rachel Deeb/Courtesy of the artist

hide caption

toggle caption

Rachel Deeb/Courtesy of the artist

Joy Oladokun’s Observations From a Crowded Room is among the best albums out Oct. 11.

Rachel Deeb/Courtesy of the artist

NPR Music’s Ann Powers and Sheldon Pearce are your guides to this week’s most compelling new musical offerings. For October 18, their selections include an array of ambitious, melodic and emotional new albums spanning genres.

Plus: celebrating the arrival of a new music website and considering what drives us to write and talk about music in the first place.

Featured Albums

• Joy Oladokun, Observations From a Crowded Room
• CKay, EMOTIONS
• Kelly Lee Owens, Dreamstate
• Porridge Radio, Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me
• Bon Iver, SABLE,

Other Albums Out Oct. 18

Pop
• Audrey Nuna, TRENCH
• Bishop Briggs, Tell My Therapist I’m Fine
• Caroline Alves, PASSIONFRUIT
• Chino Pacas, Que Sigan Llegando Las Pacas
• Dean Lewis, The Epilogue
• Jennifer Hudson, The Gift of Love
• Kylie Minogue, Tension II
• Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis, Warriors
• Rag’n’Bone Man, What Do You Believe In?
• Thelma Plum, I’m Sorry, Now Say It Back

Rock/Alt/Indie
• American Football, s/t (25th Anniversary Edition)
• Andrew Bird & Maddison Cunningham, Cunningham Bird
• The Armed, Everlasting Gaze EP
• Bear Hands, The Key to What
• Black Doldrums, In Limerence
• Christopher Owens, I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair
• The Copyrights, New Ghosts EP
• Corker, Hallways of Grey
• Dead Moon, Dead Ahead (Reissue)
• Greg Mendez, First Time / Alone EP
• High Vis, Guided Tour
• Hildegard, Jour 1596
• Humble the Great, i don’t mind floating
• Humdrum, Every Heaven
• The Intima, Peril & Panic
• Jabu, A Soft and Gatherable Star
• Japandroids, Fate & Alcohol
• Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), I Want Blood
• Jordana, Lively Premonition
• Karate, Make It Fit
• Karl Blau, Vultures of Love
• Lisel, The Vanishing Point
• Man-Eaters, Quatro Muchachos
• Nap Eyes, The Neon Gate
• Oryx, Primordial Sky
• Phantogram, Memory of a Day
• Pinhead Gunpowder (Billie Joe Armstrong), Unt
• Pipe-eye, Pipe-defy
• Remo Drive, Mercy (Deluxe)
• S***, For A Better World
• Saloon, Peel Sessions
• Shower Curtain, Words From a Wishing Well
• Silverbacks, Easy Being a Winner
• Skegss, Pacific Highway Music
• Stray View, Displace/Erase EP
• Swallow the Sun, Shining

Americana/Folk/Country
• Giorgos Katsaros, s/t (Reissue)
• Amy Speace, The American Dream
• Benjamin Tod, Shooting Star
• BRELAND, Project 2024 EP
• Ella Raphael, Mad Sometimes
• Fantastic Negrito, Son of a Broken Man
• Jerron Paxton, Things Done Changed
• Joe Henry, Blood from Stars (Reissue)
• Liv Greene, Deep Feeler
• Riley Green, Don’t Mind If I Do
• Seckou Keita, Homeland
• Snowgoose, Descendant
• Souled American, Frozen
• Tierra Kennedy, Rooted
• Tim Heidecker, Slipping Away
• Twisted Pine, Love Your Mind
• V/A, Can’t Steal My Fire, The Songs of David Olney
• W.H. Lung, Every Inch of Earth Pulsates
• Wild Rivers, Better Now
• William Prince, The Sound of Christmas
• Wyatt Flores, Welcome To The Plains

Hip-Hop
• Benny the Butcher & 38 Spesh, STABBED & SHOT 2
• DC The Don, REBIRTH
• Jaden, 2024: A Case Study of the Long Term Effects of Young Love
• K.O, I Think You Spoke Too Soon
• Yeat, Lyfestyle

R&B/Soul
• Kelly Finnigan, A Lover Was Born
• King Pari, There It Goes

Jazz
• Aaron Parks, Little Big III
• Anna Webber, simpletrio2000
• Boney James, Slow Burn
• Brandon Seabrook, Object of Unknown Function
• Jon Rose / Mark Dresser, Band Width
• Kevin Sun, Quartets
• Marie Krüttli Trio, Scoria
• Randy Ingram, Aries Dance
• Roy Hargrove’s Crisol, Grande-Terre
• Samora Pinderhughes, Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears
• Svaneborg Kardyb, Superkilen
• Sylvie Courvoisier, To Be Other-Wise
• Tim Berne & Michael Formanek, Parlour Games

Classical
• Jeremy Denk, Ives Denk
• Simone Dinnerstein, The Eye is the First Circle
• Anja Lechner, Bach / Abel / Hume
• Flora Yin Wong, Trigram for Earth
• John Luther Adams, An Atlas of Deep Time
• Víkingur Ólafsson, Continuum EP

Electronic/Out There
• Black Pus, Terrestrial Seethings
• The Blessed Madonna, Godspeed
• Bogdan Raczynski, You’re Only Young Once But You Can Be Stupid Forever
• Breymer, When I Get Through
• Confidence Man, 3AM (LA LA LA)
• d’monk, Shine
• David Keenan & Bruce Russell (The Dead C), Performs Monument Maker
• El Hardwick, Process of Elimination
• Emma Anderson (Lush), Spiralée: Pearlies Rearranged
• Honey Dijon, DJ-Kicks
• La Fleur, Väsen
• LP Giobbi, Dotr
• Machine Girl, MG Ultra
• MLiR, Pulpo Fiction
• The Necks, Bleed
• Novatron & Carter IV, Two Tone
• Oliver Coates, Throb, shiver, arrow of time
• Oren Ambarchi, Quixotism (10th Anniversary Remaster)
• Paper Jays, s/t
• Poirier, Quiet Revolution
• V/A, VINT (Lapsus Records)